Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogle bomb here. The lights in portable bathrooms can
Speaker 1: now be powered with p a transformation that has far
Speaker 1: reaching implications for sanitation and developing countries with limited electricity.
Speaker 1: The development could also advance safety and refugee camps, where
Speaker 1: a nightly walk to the bathroom can be dangerous in
Speaker 1: the dark. Spanish researchers at the University of the West
Speaker 1: of England have devised a way for urine and bacteria
Speaker 1: to react and generate enough energy to light led tubes.
Speaker 1: Researcher Irene Marino said in a press release. The technology
Speaker 1: in the prototype is based on microbial fuel cells. Marino
Speaker 1: and her colleagues detailed their findings in the journal Environmental Science,
Speaker 1: Water Research and Technology. Basically, the microbial fuel cells act
Speaker 1: like batteries with a positively charged anode and a negatively
Speaker 1: charged cathode. When the microbial fuel cells are installed inside
Speaker 1: a year urnal bacterial grow on the anode electrode. These
Speaker 1: bacteria then begin to decompose the organic material in urine,
Speaker 1: launching a metabolic process that releases protons and electrons. The
Speaker 1: protons move across a semipermeable membrane from the anode to
Speaker 1: the cathode and meet up with electrons traveling through an
Speaker 1: external electrical circuit. A complex electrochemical process called an oxygen
Speaker 1: reduction reaction in the cathode then completes the cycle and
Speaker 1: while ah electricity from urine. The journal article presents the
Speaker 1: results of two recent successful field tests. One of the
Speaker 1: large scale tests included public urinal cubicles at Glastonbury Festival,
Speaker 1: the UK's biggest music fest. The urnals were used by
Speaker 1: thousands and generated enough electricity about three hundred milliwatts to
Speaker 1: light the cubicle's interior led tubes. Another urinal field test
Speaker 1: showed promising results on the University of the West of
Speaker 1: England's campus. This prototype generated about seventy five milliwatts. The
Speaker 1: researchers are now working with a nonprofit organization to test
Speaker 1: the urinals at refugee camps and in public toilets currently
Speaker 1: without lighting. A prototype with a design for female users
Speaker 1: is also in the works. The hope is to light
Speaker 1: toilets and possibly even the surrounding area in regions that
Speaker 1: use communal toilets outside of homes, which in the dark
Speaker 1: present safety concerns, and this isn't the only P technology
Speaker 1: in the works. The company nature Commode, for example, is
Speaker 1: exploring ways to recycle urine from public toilets into fast
Speaker 1: acting fertilizers for farmers. The treated urine is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
Speaker 1: and other nutrients that plants can readily absorb. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other P powered topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.